Oteh: Legislative terrorism?

Double jeopardy: that is the abiding lot of women who are extremely beautiful and extremely intelligent to boot, especially in this part where half the men start processing their thoughts from around their waists. Half of we men would love to have the deep, delectable damsels and the other half would rather hound them so either way, the bright and beautiful gal is doomed. Hardball confesses he is not an expert in the exotic art of feminine psychology but his hunches suggest to him that Ms Arunma Oteh’s unceasing troubles seem to lay in this – let’s call it – bar room hypothesis.

Now consider the story, hardly was Oteh appointed as the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), about two years ago, than the body was put under a probe by the House of Representatives. The Nigerian bourse was actually at its nadir with stocks having crashed to near zero in most cases and investors worsted and disconsolate. Oteh was actually brought in to clean up the mess and restore confidence in Nigeria’s capital market. The House’s probe was headed by a very young man, Herman Hembe, who incidentally, was the chairman, House Committee on Capital Market.

As a matter of fact, by way of back grounding and with no intention to disrespect, Hembe was probably still in high school when Oteh was making forays in international financial institutions as Nigeria’s flag-bearer. It turned out that the probe was not really a probe but an institutionalised extortionate binge in which Hembe was the leading act. On many occasions as his ‘probe’ went on Hembe demanded and received ‘assistance’ from Oteh’s SEC. Yet when they went before life television, Hembe would bully, harangue and put down big Aunty Oteh until one horrific day, right there on live television, Oteh banged the probe table and said enough was enough of this charade. Is this a probe or a soap and who really ought to be probing whom, she must have asked.

First it was becoming a weird public show of an inquisition, second, this small fellow of an impostor didn’t know the difference between a bourse and a bus thus cannot deign to be probing something he was so illiterate about and lastly if she did not put a stop to this mess thus far and cut her losses, she would come out of it all worse than a stale pot of potage. That was how Oteh up-turned the table and spilled the beans on Hembe.

The House probed Hembe, found him guilty and promptly removed him from the probe. A new chairman, Ibrahim El Sudi, was installed whose conclusion on Oteh was that she was not qualified to head the Commission. And verdict: Oteh must be sacked. When the Presidency would not yield to the House’s directive (or was it an order?) the lawmakers chose to force its wish on the executive by denying SEC its statutory right of a budgetary allocation in the 2013 Appropriation Bill.

Last week, the chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, noted that SEC was spending its internally generated revenue to beat the budget ban by the legislature. Muhammed described the development as “an act of impunity,” noting that the House would take up the matter when it resumes in September.

It’s its prerogative to stick to its guns but here are a few questions the lawmakers might want to ponder as it enjoys its vacation. One, the National Assembly’s duty is largely oversight and approval; does it include termination of appointments of members of the executives? To insist that Oteh is not qualified for the job is to indict both the Senate and the Presidency; would it take orders from the executive arm to sack its own appointees? If this is not a witch hunt and undue high-handedness, does the NASS have such powers to deny a statutory government agency its due budgetary allocation? Can’t NASS see that no president would allow the legislature dictate whom to be sacked in the executive cabinet? If the House gets away with SEC, would it not someday invoke zero allocation on the Presidency too? Unless there is more to it than we know, the House would do well to rethink this seeming legislative terrorism in this Oteh affair and allow the fair lady be.

RELATED LINKS

My fellow compatriot you are correct they are harassing this noble woman for exposing their own because they feel they are untouchable, this pettiness could have not been the case if it was Obj, but God will the see the woman through.

19ja

my fellow Nigerians many may not know but oteh has brought sanity back to the capital market , many investor (ordinary citizens ) lost a lot during the crash of the market and ever since her appointment thing have been on a rise, if they (the house of representative) know for their impunity and dis honourable activity`s ,see a working progress and out of petty underlying reasons want to put an abrupt end to it then it a capital shame, they refused SEC allocation to kill the market , without thinking of the millions of investors, still yet she has soared and the market remains stable , rather than recall and look for a way forward they stoup down lower to want to force the backward options , let them remember that not only is GOD going to hold them accountable but we young Nigerians are watching and we will hold not only them but family name in shame for not acting to better the standards of the country.